h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

We’re in the process of putting together an h2g2 Edited Guide entry for each and every one of the UK’s Counties and Regions – and we’d like you to help us write them!

Ideally we’re looking for a volunteer to take on the job of putting together an entry on West Dumbartonshire, covering the following kind of basic information:

- General location in the UK, including all of the bordering regions.

- The main towns and cities there

- A very basic history of the region (which, for those created in more recent times might include a little background about the region before the county was formed). Some counties/regions will be famous for specific key events in history, which we'd also like to know about.

- Any geographical features (lakes in Cumbria, Peak District in Derbyshire, Pennines in Yorkshire/Greater Manchester)

- Links to other related entries for the region.

If you’ve also got the time, we’d love to see the following kind of thing in the entry too:

basic statistical data (population, size, house prices, etc); famous sons and daughters from that region (actors, sports stars, musicians?); any notable places to visit and things to do (castles, theme parks, shopping centres); TV/film appearances that might give people an idea of what the county is like, etc, etc.

If you feel that you haven’t got the time to devote to writing a whole County/Region by yourself, then please help us get the work up and going by posting any relevant facts, figures, bits of trivia or the like to this conversation thread – which will GREATLY help the person who eventually writes up the whole article. Thanks in advance for your contributions to this massive h2g2 project!

Cheers!

Paully

It's a long time since I stayed in the area, but I have vague memories of the town being called Dumbarton, but the district DuNbartonshire. Is that correct?

I don't have time to write an entry at the moment sadly, but a brief checklist of things I'd include on WD would be:

Main towns - Dumbarton itself - made a Royal Burgh by King Alexander II in 1222, capital of the Ancient Kingdom of Strathclyde. Football team known as the Sons of the Rock. Also home to the Denny Tank museum - nothing to do with army tanks, but flotation tanks used for ship design in the days when X% of the world's shipping was Clydebuilt. Dumbarton is the birthplace of Jackie Stewart the motor raciing driver.

Clydebank - shipbuilding town, received its own "blitz" during the second world war. At the centre of the shameful "franchising" incident, when the Bankies were bought and turned into Airdrie Utd to take the place of Airdrieonians in the Scottish Football League (?1992?). Hometown of Billy Connolly, folksinger and comedian extraordinaire.

Alexandria, Balloch - sorry, don't know much about them, just towns on the way to Loch Lomond up the Vale of Leven.

Also something about the sewing machine company Singer - I think they were based in the area, indeed there is a suburb of Clydebank named Singer.

As to facts and figures, a quick web trawl suggests that the population of WD is just over 93,000, in an area of around 70 square miles. It is bounded by five other authorities: clockwise from the north they comprise: Stirling, East Dunbartonshire, Glasgow, Renfrewshire and Argyll and Bute.

Hmm, seem to have written more than I intended to there. Hope that is of some help to whoever writes this up. And to think I only started this reply 'cos I was angry that someone hadn't bothered to research the spelling correctly!

Slainte,


P

Hmm, no reply. Is that good or bad?

Anyway, making no guarantees to when, if ever, this will be finished (esp. as I have to learn GuideML first), I've started to write this up. It's at http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/brunel/A6123863 if anyone wants to help, offer suggestions etc.

Slainte,


P

Hi Perseus Paully is really busy right now with many counties under way I'm sure Paully will come back to you just give it time.

Love opti

'Dunbartonshire' is now the title. Gosh! How *mad* is that - a different spelling of the town and the county?

Paully

Hi, sorry, really didn't mean to sound so petty or tetchy in my posts. No criticism implied or intended.

Yeah it's weird isn't it. I'm in the process of trying to find out why that is. Anyone who knows please post here!

Slainte,


P

Oh, you didn't sound petty or tetchy in the slightest - and I'm chuffed that you pointed out the error!

Paully

I'm delighted to announce that we already have two County entries in Peer Review, waiting to receive any bouquets or brickbats that people might lob in their general direction! If you're currently either working on or contributing to a County entry of your own right now, you might like to have a quick look to see how some other researchers have tackled this challenge. They are: County Fermanagh (A6092606) and Norfolk (A6108473).

Hope you enjoy reading them!

Paully

Hmm, it's getting there slowly. I'm beginning to wish I'd picked a place I knew slightly more about.

Would appreciate it muchly if someone would have a look at at least the top half of what I've done and give some comments, in a less threatening than PR sort of way.

Link is http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/brunel/A6123863

Thanks in advance,

P

Editorial Note: This conversation has been moved from 'Challenge h2g2' to 'West Dunbartonshire'.